Mikey! Hey buddy. I didn't read everybody's response but did see some replies referencing back treating with apple flavor extract. I have tried that previously but the flavor it imparted for me was not natural tasting and I didn't like it. Also some thought your addition of sugar likely killed off the flavors and then saw some references to different suggestions for different concentrates for making your must to get better flavored final product.
Quick background on my story. Not really a drinker myself. Never acquired a taste for beer during my 52 years. Hate pretty much all wines. Most people on here likely have much more experience than me as well. To be honest, I pretty much only drink my own cider. Or if something purchased, I not ashamed to admit I prefer something most would consider chicky or girly to drink.
But I got into cider years ago cause I had an alki coworker that decide they were going to get into cider to make some cheep hooch to cut their monthly drink expense. This person informed me of the fact they were going to start the venture and also informed me that I was going to make cider too so they had someone to compete with. Just cuz he was that caustic type that always has to prove himself superior to others. Challenge accepted!
Anyways my friend did all kinds of research and was blending all kinds of juice concentrate with natural crab apples for tannins and malic acid flavors and all kinds of apple flavor extracts. Anyways his end result was stuff that tasted like lighter fluid at best! I went over to his house and looked at his set-up and after all that work he was fermenting in a hot room on his kitchen table right beside the window sun blasting blasting on it and all! I was like, "Dude!" what are you doing! I know nothing, but to me it seems you are wasting all your time and effort on the magic must recipe and then just throwing it at a hap hazard fermentation process. For all intensive purposes, you would probably get better results trying to ferment this stuff in the toilet!"
He said, "Alright Einstein! Dazzle me with your superior knowledge!" I told him I haven't even made a single batch yet, but I will tell you how I am going to approach my effort. I am going to assume that the must is the best it is ever going to taste and it is only going down hill from there. So I am not touching my must with any of that crazy stuff you added in an attempt to hit some magic moving target after fermentation. After all, if the must tastes like crap once your done dosing it with all that stuff before you even start fermentation, it is only down hill from there buddy! And down the hill from crap is lighter fluid as we have just discovered!
So at this point I knew my target I had to hit was not that high in quality to beat his total failure. So, I made a simple must with a couple jugs of store bought apple juice and it tasted too sweet without any balancing sour. So I picked up a couple cans of frozen concentrate. One had Ascorbic acid added and the other had both ascorbic acid and malic acid added by the manufacturer. I figured the juice manufacturer knew a lot more about balancing flavor than I did so I was going rely on them and not try to become an expert myself. After adding those two cans of concentrate to the simple jug apple juice the flavor balance was really nice! I was pleased. Lots of room to go down hill from here and still have something drinkable. I then threw in a bunch of sugar for extra punch for my alki coworker.
I started first attempt which was two - 1 gallon glass carboys. I threw a pack of 1116 in one and a pack of 1118 in the other. I put them in my basement in a cold corner down there cause I read something about elevated temps stress the yeast and cause too rapid a ferment with off flavors. My friend's Hell's kitchen table ferment prove that to me. I was a believer!
Well, it was early December so my spot in the basement was about 50F. The ferment started rather slow and just seemed to simmer along slowly for about 3-4 weeks. At that point, once the air lock activity slowed to almost a complete stop I sampled both jugs. The 1118 jug was almost completely flavorless. It tested like someone cut Everclear with distilled water down to 18%. The 1116 jug had some slight apple flavor but it was over powered by a really aggressive acidic bite that just about stripped the enamel off your teeth. I heard about mellowing in secondary aging so figured that I would pour it off the lees and transfer to new 1 gallon jugs. I was shocked by how different the two products were considering the yeast was the only difference because both gallon carboys were originally filled the same batch of must in the beginning. Since I was not happy with either, I decided to blend them 50/50 in secondary and see how the two different batches interacted with each other in aging. 1 month later I sampled and wow! what an improvement. Almost drinkable. added just a small shot of concentrate to each repurposed, used plastic pop bottle and bottled up my batch. Let them sit until the bottles got firm and took a few to my coworker to finish this ridiculous challenge. He thought he was drinking the nectar of the God's. I was not as impressed myself. But I was impressed by two things; the difference imparted by the two different yeasts and how the blending in secondary really added quality and complexity that both yeasts originally lacked on their own.
With this new gain experience, I decided to do the only thing that a typical non-drinking process engineer would do. I decided that I was going to make a huge batch of must and split it between 18 different fermenters and do a 18 way yeast comparison. I was expecting some difference based on my initial results, but ,WOW!!!!!, I was not prepared for how big the range of flavors would actually be!!!!!!
I had multiple different friend groups do blind taste test samplings to compare the different batches against one another. I told the testers to rank based on overall pleasing cider taste and drinkability, residual apple flavor, and balance of complexity and character. Individual preferences did cause the individual testers to have different #1 favorites. But, when combining every taster's top 3, here are the general favorites that the tasters showed preference for over the other yeasts in the comparison study. (D47, Premier Rouge, RC-212, CY17, VR21, CR51, SN9)
Over all, the biggest apple flavor in the finished product came with D47 & Premier Rouge. Next were the RC-212 & CY17 that did not quite have the same strength of apple flavor but were very well rounded ciders with great drinkability. The remaining 3 were also very good but seemed to be highly favored by fewer and seemed to appeal to the preferences of a smaller cross section of the testers in my experiment.
So my very limited advice is to use one of these yeasts and go slow and cool in your fermentation and you will likely end up with a product you will be vary happy with.
Final disclaimers:
1. I can't really call what I made cider. All the sugar I added to the must brought the finished content up to about 17-19%. More like really strong apple wine.
2. Also, many of the yeasts mentioned above stopped well before chewing threw much of that high sugar content. Those that stopped way short and resulted in way too sweet of a final product were blended with a dose of some ferment from a 1118 primary I had going in parallel and the 1118 seemed to kick-in in secondary and consume the rest of the sugars the original yeast could not handle without affecting the flavor much at all. 1118 seems to be very neutral and in secondary does not alter flavor much at all. But!!! starting with 1118 in primary seems to overpower all other yeasts and completely processes all flavors into oblivion. Don't know why 1118 erases all flavors when used in primary but does not seem to affect remaining flavors significantly when blending with other primary ferments in secondary?
3. When mixing strong must and finishing by blending with 1118, I am able to carbonate in the bottle and the high alcohol content combined with the high carbonation pressure seems to stop me just short of dry. I usually retain just a slight residual sweetness without any treatments or passivation and secondary back sweetening. My carbonation dose accomplishes both carbonation and the final residual sweetness. Note: this is not sipping cider! At18-19% this is 16oz goes down way too easy and then sneaks up on you with a club and clobbers you! Please drink carefully and responsibly!!!!
